According to the American Cancer Society, each year there are thousands of new cases of skin cancers. The most serious type of skin cancer, melanoma, was estimated to have 62,190 cases in 2006, resulting in 7910 deaths, due to melanoma.
There are more than one million cases of non-melanoma (such as basal cell or squamous cell) skin cancer cases diagnosed yearly in the United States.
There have been compositions of natural substances suggested, such as the combination of powdered bloodroot, powdered ginger root and zinc chloride, for treatment of skin lesions, U.S. Pat. No. 4,515,779 issued to Elliott on May 7, 1985.